Thursday, 31 May 2018

Dutch-brewed Lager in the UK 1950 - 1963

Continuing my series on foreign-brewed Lager in the UK in the 1950s and 1960s, here are some from Holland.

One thing is immediately obvious: all these beers were brewed specifically for the UK market. How do I know that? Because they're all way too weak to have been sold in Holland, where Pils is always a standard 5% ABV. They have the typical OG of British Lagers of the period: somewhere in the low 1030ºs.

The names are pretty much as you would expect. Heineken, Amstel, Oranjeboom, ZHB. You might not have heard of the last one. It stands for Zuidhollandse Bierbrouwerij, which was a decent-sized brewery in The Hague. It closed in the early 1970s. Loosje, on the Nieuwe Markt in Amsterdam has a wonderful depiction of the brewery in tiles.

Bierbrouwerij De
Wereld I'd never heard of. It was located in the village of Raamsdonk in Noord Brabant. The beers in the table can't have been brewed there because the brewery was bought and closed by Oranjeboom in 1948.

The one simply called Breda, must be Drie Hoefijzers. Which in 1968 formed Verenigde Nederlandse Brouwerijen Breda-Rotterdam with Oranjeboom. And which was later taken over by the UK's Allied Breweries.

Dutch-brewed Lager in the UK 1950 - 1963

Year

Brewer

Beer

Price
per pint d

OG

FG

ABV

App.
Atten-uation

colour

1950

Amstel

Lager

1033.6

1008.1

3.31

75.89%

15.5

1957

Amstel

Lager

42

1030.8

1007.2

3.06

76.62%

9.5

1961

Amstel

Amstel Lager

36

1030.9

1006.1

3.10

80.26%

9.5

1957

Amstel

Amstel Lager

1031.9

1006.9

3.24

78.37%

12

1957

Bierbrouwerij De
Wereld

Piraat Lager Beer

30

1032.8

1005.7

3.52

82.62%

9

1959

Bierbrouwerij De
Wereld

Piraat King Size Ale

27.5

1031.1

1005.6

3.31

81.99%

10

1950

Breda

Lager (light)

1036.9

1007.8

3.78

78.86%

13.5

1961

Heineken

LagerBeer

36

1030.6

1006.3

3.04

79.41%

4.5

1963

Heineken

Lager

40

1030

1008.4

2.70

72.00%

6

1957

Heineken

Lager

42

1038.7

1009

3.86

76.74%

5

1961

Oranjeboom

Dutch Pilsner

36

1031.1

1006.9

3.02

77.81%

9.5

1963

Oranjeboom

Pilsner Lager

42

1031.6

1005.9

3.21

81.33%

7.5

1957

Oranjeboom

Dutch Lager

1035.4

1007.5

3.62

78.81%

10

1957

Oranjeboom

Dutch Pilsener

42

1033.3

1007.8

3.31

76.58%

9

1947

Z.H.B.

Z.H.B. Lager

30

1032.4

1008.2

3.14

74.07%

11.5

1950

Z.H.B.

Lager

1033.7

1008.4

3.28

75.07%

12

1957

Z.H.B.

Export Pilsner Lager

1032.3

1005.8

3.44

82.04%

13

1957

Z.H.B.

Export Pilsner Lager

42

1031.6

1006.2

3.30

80.38%

10

1961

Z.H.B.

Export Pilsner Lager

37

1032

1005.9

3.26

81.56%

8

Average

37.1

1032.7

1007.0

3.3

78.44%

9.6

Source:

Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan
Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/002.

Make your birthday special

By brewing a beer originally made on that date.

For a mere 25 euros, I'll create a bespoke recipe for any day of the year you like. As well as the recipe, there's a few hundred words of text describing the beer and its historical context and an image of the original brewing record.